Why is the President's once stratospheric approval level continuing to sink? The predominant meme at work on March 23, 2010, just after passage of ObamaCare was of an ObamaCare Bump for the president and burgeoning support for the controversial legislation.
Yet the president's approval rating has sunk five points since that policy victory. Perhaps the decline can be attributed to Speaker Pelosi's admonition that the bill must be passed so that voters could learn what was in it. But Americans are also learning, and some sheepish media outlets like the Washington Post are finally admitting, that much of the narrative surrounding the bill's passage was simply made up. The Stupak Deception was a surprise to some but the reports of an alleged racist, spitting mob surrounding Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II that Sunday the vote was held was easily recognized by many Americans as race baiting. What we know know now is that, having successfully crammed down a highly unpopular piece of legislation, Democrats could not help themselves and obnoxiously engaged in their favorite activity, labeling their opponents racists.
There is a reason why this President and Congress are sinking in the polls: they are estranged from their constituents and the race baiting is exacerbating their political problems. (As Jay noted today, this approach isn't working for Democrats.)
Republicans should be wary, though. While Democrats may get crushed in the polls in November (Nate Silver estimates that the current generic ballot points toward a 50+ seat loss for the Democrats), President Obama is looking much better which may explain his confidence right now. The President can lose Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana (all states he won in 2008) and still win reelection. Republicans can sweep these states and will still need Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado plus a rust belt state surprise, like Pennsylvania. There are other electoral combinations that may result in President Obama's defeat. But the Liberal Left seems content that the Northeast and Left Coast states will indulge their racist polemic and swallow the hypocrisy necessary to whip up a requisite amount of rage in some key Midwestern states. In the meantime, Democrats continue to own racial politics more today than at any time since the War Between The States.
H/T Glenn Reynolds
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Filed under:
Barack Obama, Democrats, Politics, Republicans
Tags: 2010 Elections, 2012 Elections, Gallup, Obama Poll Ratings
Comments (7)
I said a while back that Ha... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Andrew X | April 11, 2010 8:30 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
I said a while back that Harvard professor Gates might be quite correct to offer his handcuffs to the Smithsonian: I think history may show the Cambridge Gates affair was the moment Obama's polls started to dive, never to return, certainly not to those heights at least. And that was the moment the millions of Americans began to wonder if what they voted for and what they got were two diffferent things.
1. Posted by Andrew X | April 11, 2010 8:30 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on April 11, 2010 20:30
2. Posted by jim m | April 11, 2010 8:32 PM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Not just from their constituents but from reality. The administration is cut off from an understanding of how the world works. Even Ahmadinejad made fun of obama and called him an amateur last week saying that obama didn't understand international diplomacy. He's right.
Obama has come out in favor of Argentina taking the Falkland islands despite the fact that the entire population is ethnically British and none of the inhabitants speak Spanish as their first language.
He views the world through the same bogus lens of leftist socialism that celebrate Che as some great freedom fighter rather than the mass murderer that he was.
He sat for 2 decades at the feet of Jeremiah Wright listening to him screech about white racism and how our government is an extension of the Klan.
For obama it isn't just race baiting. He believes this crap. He really believes that capitalism is just a form of institutionalized racism designed to oppress black people.
2. Posted by jim m | April 11, 2010 8:32 PM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on April 11, 2010 20:32
3. Posted by kathie | April 11, 2010 9:44 PM | Score: 10 (10 votes cast)
My hunch is that we have no good idea of how angry Americans are or how many would be in the streets if they could. Most of the "tea party" goers see themselves as good people, who are not racists, who would give a helping hand to anybody who really needs one, but will not sacrifice America's goodness and uniqueness for Obama and his helpers.
Our world is not so complicated, we are not politicians, or spinners, we are not sarcastic and belittling when someone states another opinion. We don't like the tone or insinuation coming from Obama. Unlike Obama we know who we are and what we are, we are not lost, or misinformed, we have a gut and it is telling us Obama does not have a clue of who we are or what we are made of. IT IS A BIG PROBLEM.
3. Posted by kathie | April 11, 2010 9:44 PM |
Score: 10 (10 votes cast)
Posted on April 11, 2010 21:44
4. Posted by Mark L | April 12, 2010 9:35 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Your math is correct for an election using a 2008 distribution of electoral votes, but the census will result in a loss of representatives in Blue States and a gain in Red States. California, New York, Michigan and Illinois will lose electoral votes, while places like Texas, Utah, and Georgia will gain.
Adjust the electoral votes and I think you will find that Obama will have a much more difficult job to get to 50% of the Electoral College.
4. Posted by Mark L | April 12, 2010 9:35 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on April 12, 2010 09:35
5. Posted by P. Bunyan | April 12, 2010 9:57 AM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
You're forgetting who is running the census Mark L.
I expect they'll find that the population for Detroit has increased by 30 million people, for example while the population of Texas has decreased 50%.
Did ya notice that duplicate census forms were only sent to areas that traditionally vote demcrat?
5. Posted by P. Bunyan | April 12, 2010 9:57 AM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on April 12, 2010 09:57
6. Posted by Flu-Bird | April 12, 2010 12:43 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
The more bad news for obama the good news for conservatives
6. Posted by Flu-Bird | April 12, 2010 12:43 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on April 12, 2010 12:43
7. Posted by 914 | April 12, 2010 1:30 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
A tiger cant change his stripes and neither can the Won or the crowd Barry grew up with..Once a racebaiter always a racebaiter. Right Barry.
7. Posted by 914 | April 12, 2010 1:30 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on April 12, 2010 13:30